Gain a reputation of being sincerely interested in your customers BEFORE you start selling. Talk to them informally and make them remember you were there.

If you have a web site, update it often and make sure there is plenty of information. Invite people to refer to your web site for details on your products and services.

Above all, make yourself interesting to others. If you sell yourself as well as product you will always have an eager market.

SOME OF THE MAILING LISTS I USE:

Article Announce - many topics in several lists. Choose list(s) that cover your topic(s). Directory - http://www.web-source.net/articles/ Subscribe - mailto:article_announce-subscribe@egroups.com

ArticlePublish http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ArticlePublish

ArticlesArchives - Internet, How-to, Small business http://articlesarchives.netfirms.com

EzAdSuccess - articles and ad swaps mailto:subscribe@ezadsuccess.com

Ezine Articles http://www.ezinearticles.com/ mailto:join-ezinearticles@ezinearticles.com

Free Content - business articles (this has a wide range of business topics) http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Free-Content

PublishInYours http://groups.yahoo.com/group/PublishInYours

SOME OF THE ARTICLE BANK WEB SITES I USE:

Idea Marketers http://www.ideamarketers.com

Marketing-Seek - they also send out details of your article to their mailing list http://www.marketing-seek.com/

Opportunity Update - mostly net marketing http://www.opportunityupdate.com/

UltimateProfits http://www.ultimateprofits.com

MailBiz http://www.mailbiz.com/mailbiz/magcat/

WWIO http://certificate.net/wwio/ideas.shmtl

Seed Your Web http://www.seedyourweb.com/

Free Sticky http://freesticky.com/stickyweb/

Advertise Online - lots of web and writers resource links, as well as articles http://www.advertise-online.net/

Each site or list has slightly different rules about content - topics it accepts, how often you can post. The things that they all have in common is that you must use authors resource box, and you cannot make changes to any articles that you use. Most general lists and banks are strict on language and content - if you plan on adult themes, look for a specialist list.

Some of mailing lists also send out details of publishers (webmasters) looking for articles - if you see a topic you have covered, or could cover, e-mail webmaster. Be sure to specify your publishing rules, title, number of words, and target readership if publisher has several topics. For example:

****** Title: Starting a web site This article is suitable for new webmasters. Word count: 768 including resource box, at 65 chars per line It may be reproduced freely in ezines and on web sites as long as it remains unchanged and resource box is included. ******

Some authors ask publisher for a copy of ezine, or URL of web page on which it is used. If you store your articles on an auto-responder, you will get an e-mail whenever someone sends for a copy.